In speech at Republican National Convention, Trump to paint dire picture of America

The prepared text of Trump’s remarks, released ahead of his speech, shows he will paint a dire and frightening vision of an America besieged by hostile forces abroad and unrest at home – and cast Hillary Clinton, his presumptive Democratic opponent, as unfit to face those dire times.

“The forgotten men and women of our country, people who work hard but no longer have a voice: I am your voice,” Trump was set to say, according to the prepared remarks.

Trump was introduced by his daughter Ivanka, who told the crowd that as a “proud millennial, I do not consider myself categorically Republican or Democrat.”

‘Sometimes, it’s a tough choice,” Ivanka TRUMP said. “That is not the case this time.”

Earlier, Silicon Valley mogul Peter Thiel offered a tech-focused version of Trump’s pessimistic critique, saying that U.S. government systems were hopelessly outmoded, with nuclear missile systems still run on ancient floppy disks.

“That is a staggering decline, for the country that completed the Manhattan project. We don’t accept such incompetence in Silicon Valley, and we must not accept it from our government,” Thiel said.

Thiel also offered a sharp critique of a policy fight that many Republicans have embraced, over rules requiring transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their birth gender. In several states this year, social conservatives have fought bitterly to keep these rules.

Thiel said that was a mistake. “This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?”

He also said he was proud to be a gay American, a message that the convention crowd cheered, and met with chants of “USA.”